1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to camera modules, and particularly to a camera module with an autofocus mechanism.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, camera modules have been incorporated into mobile devices, such as mobile phones and laptop computers. Most such devices are progressively becoming smaller over time, and digital camera modules are, experiencing a corresponding reduction in size. Nevertheless, in spite of the small size of current digital camera modules, there remains a high demand for useful properties of the camera modules, such as autofocus function.
A camera module generally includes a lens module and an image sensor module in alignment with the lens module. The lens module typically includes a lens barrel and lenses assembled therein. Recently, camera modules have employed autofocus mechanism, such as step motors for driving the lenses by screws to move responsive to the image sensor module, thereby achieving the autofocus function. However, the total length required for such camera module is incompatible with most current size reduction requirements for the camera module.
What is needed, therefore, is a camera module which has a simple and compact autofocus mechanism.